Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

Results tagged ‘ outfielders ’

The Phillies announced today they have activated Delmon Young from the 15-day disabled list. Ezequiel Carrera has been designated for assignment to make room for him on the 25-man roster.

Everybody finally gets a chance to see if Young can play right field or not. (Tonight’s lineup hasn’t been posted. Being the game is in Cleveland he certainly could DH.) Remember, the Phillies said Young would not join the team unless he could play there competently. I don’t know how much I believed that, unless he could barely stand out there. The Phillies need more production offensively from their outfielders, so I think they’re prepared to sacrifice defense for what they hope is a boost offensively. Phillies outfielders enter tonight’s game against the Indians with a combined .602 OPS, which is the second-worst mark in baseball. Only the Marlins (.597) are worse. Basically, if the Phillies infielders aren’t getting hits, nobody is.

If Young hits like he hit with the Twins in 2010 (.826 OPS) his offense could outweigh the potential negatives defensively. If he hits like he hit last year (.707 OPS) in Detroit, you wonder how much will be gained? He had 74 RBIs last season, but ranked 20th in baseball with 415 runners on base during his plate appearances. In other words, he had a ton of opportunities to knock in runs. But his runners batted in percentage (13.5 percent) ranked 98th, meaning he did not take advantage of those opportunities.

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